Billing for your hardware and paint shop in Silvassa, Daman and Diu
The factory's monthly account, the painter's tin and the godown behind the shop, on one phone.
Tools for a counter that supplies workshops, contractors and house painters
GST bills
The factory's month of sealant, bolts and sheets on GST bills sent to its clerk, each bill with the day the maintenance man took the goods.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the contractor repainting a factory's workers' rooms block by block, with the tins and brushes he collects dated to the block they went on, so you can tell which block ran past its paint.
Low stock warnings
A warning that the sealant or a shade of paint is nearly gone, before the painter's boy arrives.
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Kadaiya, Bhimpore and Dabhel: the lanes where bolts are bought by the dozen
Hardware is bought where the machines are, and in Daman the machines are in a few well-known lanes.
From the welding rod on the factory's account to the whitewash before Christmas
The wrong-thread bolt, and the second trip on no slip
A maintenance man takes a bolt, and it is the wrong thread. He is back within the hour for the right one, and no slip is written for the second trip because the first is already in the tin. The clerk who asks what was taken finds one bolt on paper and two in the shed.
A bolt by the dozen for the lane and by the piece for the house
A workshop in the lane sends a boy for machine bolts when a line has stopped, and he wants the dozen at once. A man mending a gate wants one. Both are served from the same shelf, and the workshop's boy is not kept standing while the shop looks for the size.
Two painting seasons close together, ordered from two lines of last year
The factory colony is painted twice a year, once before Diwali and once before Christmas. The shop stocks for the first from the contractors' lists, with lime, brushes and tape in October, and for the second from the house owners' asks, with colour in December. The two orders go to the dealer in different weeks, so one season's leftovers never sit on the other's shelf.
A maintenance man with a slip, a painter on a ladder and a shade that has run out
The maintenance man who comes with a slip and a hurry
A machine has stopped, and a man from a nearby workshop is at your counter for a bolt, a bearing, a length of pipe and welding rods. He signs a slip and says the factory will pay at the month's end. By the time the accounts clerk calls to ask what was taken on the twelfth, the slip is one of forty in a tin. A bolt that is the wrong thread is a second trip, and the second trip is not on any slip.
The shift change, when the maintenance men all come at once
At the shift change three maintenance men come in together, each for a different machine and each in a hurry to get back. One wants bolts, one sealant and one a belt, and all three say it is for the factory's account. In the crowd the slips get mixed, and the factory clerk later finds the belt on the wrong man's slip.
Two rushes with different goods
In the wet weeks the counter fills with sealants, waterproofing and pipe fittings for leaking roofs. Before the festivals it fills with colour. The stock for one rush is the dead stock of the other, and cement, pipes and sheets sit in the godown behind, where nobody counts them till they are asked for.
Questions hardware and paint shops in Silvassa, Daman and Diu ask
A factory's maintenance men pick up small things all month on the factory's account. How do I know who took what?
Write the maintenance man's name on every bill. The factory clerk holds the indent for the month, and he matches each bill to a line of it by the man's name and the goods, so nothing is asked of you at the month's end.
A contractor repaints the rooms of a factory colony block by block. Can I tell which block took more paint?
Name the block in each bill's lines, with the day. Block by block the page shows how many tins went. The block that ran past its paint is the one with the longer list, and you quote the colony's next job from it.
Roof sealant runs out in the first wet week. Can I see it going down?
In the first wet week the factory sheds begin to leak, and the maintenance man comes for sealant. Set a low level on it, and the alert warns you before the first drip.
Industrial estates of Daman and the Piparia riverfront in Silvassa
Thirty-nine industrial estates in Daman district house 3,443 industrial units, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli has about 5,450 industries. Every unit has machines that stop, pipes that leak and walls that need paint, and a hardware counter nearby is part of how they keep working.
Industrial units, mostly along the Piparia riverfront in the north of Silvassa, employ over 48% of the city's working population. A counter on that side of the city serves the same men who work the machines, at the same hours as the shifts change.